About the Collaborative 

Improving access and inclusion for students with disabilities is the goal of a $141,000 grant awarded by Microsoft to Stephanie W. Cawthon, PhD, professor in the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin and an international expert on disability, who leads the Collaborative for Access and Equity: A Microsoft-UTexas Partnership (Pilot).

In the 2021-2022 pilot year summarized in its just-published impact report, disabled student coaches and faculty partners showed that the work of an intersectional professional community — a true collaboration — can shift the mindsets and pedagogical approaches of faculty, with a significant impact on the future learning experiences of all students.

Housed at the Texas Center for Equity Promotion, the Collaborative’s pilot year focused on identifying accessibility strategies and technology tools, sharing perspectives about access and inclusion, and building an online learning community with faculty members.

UT Austin is one of just seven universities that Microsoft is collaborating with on disability access and inclusion on campus.

About Centering Access on the Disabled Experience

Building a campus culture of access requires centering efforts on the expertise and experiences of disabled students and community members. These voices are usually missing from discussions about inclusive teaching and learning, professional development for faculty, research activities, or systemic institutional support. 

“Accessible learning requires more than just accommodations and course retrofits,” said Dr. Cawthon, a deaf faculty member who was recently appointed co-chair of UT Austin’s newly created Disabled Faculty Equity Council, which recognizes that ableism intersects with racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia to impact faculty experiences on campus.

“It is essential that disabled students and faculty are at the heart of the Collaborative, as they should be of any accessibility initiative focused on them. It is also critical to leverage technology tools to provide the embedded, just-in-time support that is necessary in every accessible and inclusive classroom,” she said.

About the Research on Access to Inclusion

There is a growing body of research that is the foundation for the Collaborative’s mission and design. 

• An article in the Journal of Faculty Development, From Access to Inclusion: A Faculty Learning Community Curriculum, co-authored by Dr. Stephanie Cawthon explains the design and implementation of a semester-long professional development program for faculty that provides a scaffolded, applied approach to strengthening inclusive teaching with respect to students with disabilities in higher education. 

• Accessible classroom design is often provided through external services and accommodations. An approach based in Universal Design for Learning (UDL), though, seeks to engage students in learning by creating classroom spaces with accessibility integrated into the pedagogical approach. Realizing these goals requires participation from one of the most valuable, yet underused, resources: the students themselves. To that end, this paper in Transformative Dialogues: Teaching and Learning Journal coauthored by Dr. Cawthon examines a student-faculty collaborative approach to increasing accessibility in postsecondary classrooms. Results of this study suggest that student observers are able to provide concrete and constructive feedback on strategies to increase classroom accessibility.

• In an article called “generative for researchers interested in accessibility” by the editor of the journal Future Review, Dr. Cawthon and her colleagues provide the scholarly groundwork for a new accessibility measurement framework that can reflect the lived experiences of study subjects and drive what data is collected.  

• Dr. Cawthon and colleagues explored the relationship between executive functioning, cognitive load, inclusive teaching strategies, and ratings of teacher effectiveness in a study published in Future Review — research that is necessary with increasing student enrollment in higher education of people from diverse academic, cultural, disability, and socio-economic backgrounds.

Presentations About the Collaborative

Due to its innovative approach and focus on making access easy, the Collaborative has already received many requests for Dr. Cawthon to present. This is a sampling of presentations in Spring 2022.

• University of Texas at Austin | What Starts Here Launch | “Collaborative on Access & Equity: Transforming a Campus from the Inside Out”

• Microsoft Inter-University Showcase | “Transforming a Campus from the Inside Out: Accessibility as a Mindset and Practice”

• ITLC Lilly Conference | “The Microsoft Collaborative for Access and Equity: Co-Creating an Accessible Campus Culture with Disabled Students and Faculty Partners” and “Ableism in Higher Education: Reducing Barriers to Disabled Student, Staff, and Faculty Success”

• Columbia University’s Inaugural Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Anti-Racism, and Justice Symposium | “Fostering Accessibility from the Inside Out”

About Microsoft

The Collaborative is made possible by a grant from Microsoft, which is committed to accessibility and making technology that reflects the diversity of everyone. It has made a new five-year commitment help decrease the gap in education, employment, and access to technology for the more than 1 billion people with disabilities around the world. That includes “accessible by design” features in its products, providing accessibility testing and themes in its developer tools and hubs, and helping to build workforces and workplaces that expand accessibility. Learn more >>

About University of Texas at Austin

UT Austin embraces diversity, equity, and inclusion in its academic mission, fostering an environment that addresses the campus needs and supports the perspectives of underrepresented groups among faculty, staff, and students. It supports a variety of programs, working groups, and task force efforts dedicated to removing barriers to success and developing solutions to meet the unique needs of everyone on campus. Learn more >>